The Southern Pines Garden Club announces its 60th annual Home and Garden Tour is scheduled from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday, April 2.

Since 1948, the Southern Pines Garden Club has been hosting a tour of the area's most beautiful homes and gardens. Members of the SPGC act as hostesses in each home and welcome guests to view the interiors as well. Each home is filled with bouquets of seasonal flowers artfully put together by the members of the club. The date of the tour always coincides with the blooming of the dogwood, azalea and other flowering growth of the Sandhills, which during the early part of April, makes a blossoming garden of this entire community.

Advance tickets, which are $15, can be purchased at The Country Bookshop at 140 NW Broad St., Southern Pines; the Campbell House at 482 E. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines and Lyne's Furniture Gallery at 105 Magnolia Road in Pinehurst. Tickets are also available on the day of the tour at each house for $20.

"To guide you on the tour, a clearly marked map will direct visitors to six distinguished homes in Southern Pines and Pinehurst," says a spokesman. "If you start at the Campbell House, you will also be able to view an art show titled 'Hope Floats,' featuring artists from Bay St. Louis, Miss., an area devastated by hurricane Katrina in 2005. This exhibit is presented in partnership with Moore Friends of Mississippi, a group that adopted Bay St. Louis as Moore County's sister community to help in their recovery efforts."

The "Yellow Rose Cottage," owned by Mr. and Mrs. Sam Self, is a special retreat that uses the outdoors as well as indoors to produce a relaxing second home. The couple, from Dallas, calls this well-named home their "Texas in Pinehurst." Filled with a fine ceramic collection, including North Carolina pottery and eclectic furnishings and paintings, it truly delights the eye. An iron console in the living room was fashioned from an old balcony. Yellow "Lady Banks" roses, a seamless addition recently conceived by the owners' daughter, shade a pergola over the pool area.

Originally built as a four-unit apartment house in 1897, "Tremont" is believed to be the oldest home in Pinehurst. After a meticulous remodeling, this charming cottage is now the second home of Sue and Stephen Tuck. The unusually shuttered classic entry immediately brings one into the living and dining areas, which extend the entire width of the house. The rooms are warmed by mellow cherry paneling original to the house and a fireplace at each end. An old Welsh cupboard overflows with lovely ceramics near a breakfast area.

French doors lead to the pool terrace and an intimate furnished garden. Even the small reading room nestled in a quiet corner of the house bespeaks the serene and relaxed comfort the owners achieved in personalizing this property.

For the past 60 years the club has been donating proceeds of the Tour of Homes for beautification projects around Southern Pines as well as scholarship funds for students in the Horticulture program at Sandhills Community College.

The magnolia trees that line Broad Street, the Bradford pears and dogwoods along West Pennsylvania, playground equipment at schools and the Southern Pines Park as well as hundreds of other plantings in public places have all been donated by the SPGC.

Years ago, members of the club were instrumental in getting the town to banish unsightly billboards at the entrance of Southern Pines along U.S. 1 and design a handsome welcoming sign.

"Inspired by the beauty of this area and a love for gardening, the women of the Southern Pines Garden Club have been instrumental in making this town a beautiful place to live," says a spokesman.